20.25lb 29er. Looking to lose 1lb!

Hey guys,

My bike is one of the cheap chinese Focus Raven knock offs. Pretty light frame at sub-1200g, if I remember correctly. The bike itself rides very well; great handling and acceleration.

But, like all of you guys, I'm always tinkering and trying to lose some more weight. So, here are a list of the components on my bike. I'm hoping that you guys will make some suggestions as to where I can lose weight without sacrificing the race worthiness of the bike.

Lighter/better crank - Hollowgram or Lightning or go 1xwhatever..
Do you like your XX brakes?
You can get crazy light bars, stem and seatpost but it will cost a fortune.
Weigh your saddle and compare it to the light seats.
Weigh the cage and compare.
4ti eggs. You can even get them lighter than stock. There are threads here and on the weightweenies site.
Cables?
Not sure if KMC chains are lighter???

Lefty and stem options are out. Lefty would put my bars up too high (small frame size = ~100mm HT). Same thing with the stems. WCS C260 is the only "high end" stem with the angle I wanted, 25 degrees. Front end is nice and low. And that stem is STIFF, too.

Bars are a no-go as well. The boutique brands only go out to 660mm. That 700mm bar lets me get a LOT of leverage, and really push the front end in turns.

I also have some reservations about the hubs suggested. Mixed reviews out there about Tune and Extralite hubs. 240s aren't the lightest, but they're light-ish, and durable enough to be raced on DH bikes. I can take them apart by hand, clean, lube, and reassemble by hand. Similarly, Sapim CX-Rays weigh .06g less per spoke than Revs. That's 3.36g for 56 spokes. Cost/benefit analysis on that one says negative, Ghost Rider.

Bottle cage, seatpost collar, pedal spindles...definitely doable and make sense. Going 1x10, yeah, definitely looking into that. That will save most of a pound right there.

I'll be getting a Bontrager 29-0 2.2 to try out shortly as well. Should drop around 100g from the rear wheel. I had the 26" version on my Anthem X 26er and it was amazingly grippy for the amount of tread it had, or lack thereof. And surprisingly, very durable. Sticking with the Rocket Ron on the front. A "real" tire is necessary there.

SRAM 1051 chain? Replace with a proper chain (1091 or similar), replace all bolts with Ti or Al, depending on application, and call it done. At some point you'll be compromising durability and /or performance.

Tire Design & Development Engineer. The opinions expressed in this forum are solely my own.

Bars are a no-go as well. The boutique brands only go out to 660mm. That 700mm bar lets me get a LOT of leverage, and really push the front end in turns.

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Schmolke will custom make you a bar to whatever length you want.

Originally Posted by Le Duke

I also have some reservations about the hubs suggested. Mixed reviews out there about Tune and Extralite hubs. 240s aren't the lightest, but they're light-ish, and durable enough to be raced on DH bikes.
.

Extralite uses internals from DT Swiss if that makes you feel better.

On the S-Works cranks, you can use an XX spider. You could also have a spiderless ring made to whatever size you want if you want to go 1X.

Lefty and stem options are out. Lefty would put my bars up too high (small frame size = ~100mm HT). Same thing with the stems. WCS C260 is the only "high end" stem with the angle I wanted, 25 degrees. Front end is nice and low. And that stem is STIFF, too.

Bars are a no-go as well. The boutique brands only go out to 660mm. That 700mm bar lets me get a LOT of leverage, and really push the front end in turns.

I also have some reservations about the hubs suggested. Mixed reviews out there about Tune and Extralite hubs. 240s aren't the lightest, but they're light-ish, and durable enough to be raced on DH bikes. I can take them apart by hand, clean, lube, and reassemble by hand. Similarly, Sapim CX-Rays weigh .06g less per spoke than Revs. That's 3.36g for 56 spokes. Cost/benefit analysis on that one says negative, Ghost Rider.

Bottle cage, seatpost collar, pedal spindles...definitely doable and make sense. Going 1x10, yeah, definitely looking into that. That will save most of a pound right there.

I'll be getting a Bontrager 29-0 2.2 to try out shortly as well. Should drop around 100g from the rear wheel. I had the 26" version on my Anthem X 26er and it was amazingly grippy for the amount of tread it had, or lack thereof. And surprisingly, very durable. Sticking with the Rocket Ron on the front. A "real" tire is necessary there.

In regards to Tune & Extralite hubs getting bad reviews, I'm pretty sure that was the older Tune hubs. I have 14 months on the new Tune Prince/Princess hubs with no issues and have not heard of anyone else having problems. I have another wheelset that is using Extralite hubs & again no issues. Very easy to service - once the cassette is removed all you need is two 5mm allen wrenchs. I researched the Extralite hubs for over a year before pulling the trigger on them and couldn't find one neg. review on them.Do you have any links I could check out on the Extralite hubs reviews.
Schmolke will make any length bar you want. These are 685mm wide & 15mm rise.

X10-sl chain
ti spindles for your pedals
weigh your saddle. I bet it's heavier than you think. Try a Speed Needle.
Woodman ti seatpost clamp will probably save ~20g. Those chinese carbon clamps are pretty heavy.
Give 1x10 a try. with an 11-36 you might really enjoy it. Mine is 11-34 and I rarely feel like I need more gears.
Ashima rotors are pretty cheap ($12 at aawyeah.com) and would save about 20g over XX. Even more if you could go with a 140mm rear.

Other than that I'd say you've maxed it out without spending really big bucks. Good luck!

Also, are the Specialized WC racers running a 36t, 5 arm 110mm Rotor chainring? I've been wanting to try them for a while, but they don't make an "MTB" ring suitable for 1x10.

I went through this same dilemma. Get the S-Works triple chainring spider. It has a 104 bcd and can run any size ring you want. I considered the 110/5bolt but it wasn't recommended by the techs @ Spesh.

Outside of the tire, and going 1x I can't see a lot of things that provide that happy combination of relative affordability, weight savings and reliability. The only things I (personally) would consider would be lighter rotors, KMC x10sl chain, lighter pedals and limited bolt tuning. The saving isn't huge, but as there is no real loss of reliability they could be worthwhile.